**5. Best management practices of sugarcane**

#### **5.1. Fertigation and water-saving irrigation practices**

The distribution and availability of soil water plays an important role in size and distribution of the root system, and also it induces differences in the capacity of crops to exploit deeper soil reserves. In general, most sugarcane roots are close to the surface and then decline exponentially with depth, which is approximately 50% of root in the top 20 cm of soil and 85% in the top 60 cm. Thus, the moisture extraction pattern from different soil layers follows the root distribution. The percentage of roots in the top 0–20 cm was 62.0%, 23.4% from 20 to 40 cm, 8.8% from 40 to 60 cm, 4.4% from 60 to 80 cm, and less than 1.4% from 80 to 120 cm. Thus, the moisture extraction pattern from different soil layers follows the root distribution.

Sugarcane requires a large amount of water at about 645-738.6 tons per year (**Figure 5**) and fertilizers at 300-330 kg/ha of N, 90-120 kg/ha of P<sup>2</sup> O5 and 300 kg/ha of K<sup>2</sup> O (**Table 4**) since it is a long duration crop of 10–14 months in China and since it produces huge amounts of biomass. The water requirement of sugarcane is dependent on its growth phase, 8.3% in the seedling, 21.7% in the tillering, more than 56.9% in the elongation, and 13.0% at the maturity. In southern China, the rainfall is enough for sugarcane growth. However, unbalanced distribution of the rainfalls does not match up with the sugarcane growth stage, so sugarcane always suffers from the drought, especially in the Spring and Autumn. More than 80% of sugarcane requires irrigation in China. In recent years, water-saving irrigation practices are developing fast in China, including spray, microspray, and drip irrigations [19]. The fertigation practices coupled application of this water-saving irrigation with fertilization save a lot of water, fertilizer and labor, and improve fertilizer-use efficiency [20]. The fertilizer concentrations in fertigation practice ranged from 0.1 to 0.2% in the seedling phase and 0.2 to 0.3% in the tillering and elongation phase. No any fertilizer is applied in the maturity phase. Fertigation increased cane productivity by 19.2–56.4% and fertilizer-use efficiency by 90%. It also saved water by 30–60%. In dry upland sugarcane areas, fertigation practices are becoming popular since 2000s.

Compared with the conventional application methods, fertigation practices showed several distinct advantages (**Table 5**), including more even distribution of nutrients in the root area, decrease in the losses of nutrient and water, increase in the uptake of nutrient, less labor, and equipment required.

#### **5.2. Healthy seed cane program**

long internodes, nonlodging, nonflowering or shy flowering, erect growing habit, absence of spines on the leaf sheaths, good ratooning ability, less bud sprouting, absence of splits on the

Variety identified by National means that the variety is approved to plant in main production provinces in order to achieve higher sugar yield. Identified by one province means can only be grown in this province; before extending in

**Variety name Female parent Male parent Identified by Released year**

FN91-4710 CP72-1210 Ke5 Fujian 2004 FN94-0403 CP72-1210 MT69-263 National 2005 FN98-1103 CP72-1210 Zang74-141 National 2009 FN95-1702 CP72-1210 YN73-204 National 2005 FN83-36 CP49-50 FN57-18 National 1999 FN81-745 YT59-65 CP36-105 National 1999 MT88-103 Co1001 YC82-96 National 1999 MT92-649 ROC1 Co1001 National 2005 MT86-2121 Q641 CP49-50 National 2005 MT92-505 Co1001 CP73-1547 National 2007 MT99-596 Co1001 YC73-226 National 2009 YZ85-151 Gang64-137 Chuang57-416 National 1999 YZ92-19 Gang64-137 CP67-412 National 2005 YZ89-351 YC82-96 GT11 National 2005 YZ94-375 CP72-1210 YC73-512 National 2007 YZ99-596 Co419 YC85-881 National 2009

58 Sugarcane - Technology and Research

The distribution and availability of soil water plays an important role in size and distribution of the root system, and also it induces differences in the capacity of crops to exploit deeper

stalks, and resistance to local abiotic and biotic stress [18].

other provinces, further testing may need to be done in those provinces.

**Table 3.** Part of new varieties bred in recent 20 years and their parents.

FN38 YT83-257 YT83-271 National FN39 YT91-976 CP84-1198 National FN41 ROC20 YT91-976 National GT43 YT85-177 GT92-66 Guangxi GT44 ROC1 GT92-66 Guangxi GT42 ROC22 GT92-66 Guangxi GT46 YT85-177 ROC25 Guangxi GT47 YT85-177 CP81-1254 Guangxi GT49 GZ14 ROC22 Guangxi

**5. Best management practices of sugarcane**

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**5.1. Fertigation and water-saving irrigation practices**

Sugarcane is vegetatively propagated for commercial cultivation. Different kinds of planting materials *viz.*, cane setts, settlings, and bud chips are used for raising sugarcane crop. Generally, two-bud setts are used for planting in China, while in some areas, three-bud setts


the Pokkah Boeng disease, the setts was treated by carbendazim solution at 0.1% (at 1 g/l) for 15 min. To control termites, early shoot borers, and scale insects, the setts was treated by a systematic insecticide *viz.* malathion 50EC (at 2 ml/l) or dimethoate 30EC (at 3 ml/l) for 15 min.

Sugarcane Production in China

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http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.73113

With the urbanization in China, labor is becoming scarce, and labor cost is increasing, thereby favoring mechanization for field management in sugarcane production. In the past few years, the labor cost for harvest increased from 30–50 RMB in 2008 to 130–150 RMB per tonnage. Almost 100% mechanization has been attained in soil preparation and in most field operations such as planting, fertilizer application, mulching with trash and plastic film, and weed and pest controls, but very little mechanization is practiced for sugarcane harvesting (**Table 6**).

For higher sugarcane yields, providing optimum soil environment is an essential prerequisite since the crop remains in the field for about 5–6 years due to the practice of raising several ratoon crops [23]. The ideal land should be prepared by the following steps: (i) subsoiling or chiseling to a depth of 50–75 cm, (ii) discing to shatter clods, (iii) plowing the old crop's residues and organic manures, and (iv) constructing the trench or ridge for draining excess water during rainy season. The land preparation also requires 25 cm of furrow depth and 10 cm of

It is necessary to harvest sugarcane at a proper time i.e., peak maturity, by adopting right technique in order to realize maximum weight of the millable canes (thus sugar) produced with least possible field losses under the given growing environment. Otherwise, it will cause great losses in cane yield, sugar recovery, poor juice quality, and problems in milling. In China, more than 95% of sugarcane was manually harvested using various types of hand knives or hand axes. Among the several tools, the cutting blade is usually heavier and facilitates easier and efficient cutting of cane. Manual harvesting requires skilled laborers and large

In China, harvesting labor is becoming more scarce and costly in view of diversion of labor to other remunerative work in industry, construction, business, etc. (0.5–1 tons per day for one adult). In addition, more and more younger farmers are not interested in the field operations.

**Operation Power requirement/ha Output (ha/h) kW Diesel (l/ha)**

Prediscing 125 18 2.5 Ripping 165 48 0.5 Plowing 165 24 1.7 Postdiscing 125 18 2.5 Land leveling 125 7 3.5 Ridging 70 16 0.5

**Table 6.** Power requirement and work output for land preparation of sugarcane.

**5.3. Mechanization for field management**

the loosened furrow bottom and drainage channels.

amount of labor cost.

**Table 4.** Nutrition uptake in different growth phases of sugarcane.

are also used. Germination capacity of single-bud sett is very poor due to loss of moisture and fungal or bacterial infection from cut ends on either side. Furthermore, the plants arising from single-bud setts also lack vigor and yield lower as compared to those from two- or three-bud setts. The ideal seed cane involved is as follows: (1) half-year seed cane, (2) fine and viable buds without damage and aerial root, (3) free pathogens and pest, and (4) pure in quality.

Traditionally, farmers in China obtain the seed cane from their harvested cane and have no any treatments before planting, which results in low plant population per unit area consequently reducing the yield. Since 2000, healthy seed cane program has been developed to protect the sugarcane from soil-borne diseases causing pathogens, which usually gain entry into the setts through the cut ends following planting and cause sett rotting and damage to buds, thus affecting germination. The healthy seed cane was produced by micropropagation, thermos- or chemotherapy.

The healthy seed cane was produced at three stages, i.e., breeder's stock, stock seed cane from micropropagation and commercial seed cane. For micropropagation, no pathogen was detected in the plantlets derived from sugarcane stem tip tissue culture, which is required for mosaic, ratooning stunt, and yellow leaf [21, 22]. Use of pathogen-free healthy seed cane improved cane productivity by 15.1–52.1% and sucrose content by 0.12–1.71% due to control of various diseases such as ratoon stunting disease, mosaic viruses, and yellow leaf disease in the seed cane. However, the application of healthy seed cane (about 2% of total sugarcane plantation) was not satisfactory with respect to the production cost, re-infection in the field, and the small-scale farms in China.

Three kinds of major disease (smut, ratooning, and grassy shoot) were transferred through seed cane, which could be eliminated by heat-treatment at 52°C for 30 min and organo-mercurial treatment to protect the setts from soil-borne diseases to ensure better germination. To control


**Table 5.** Differences of nutrition and water use efficiencies among irrigation ways.

the Pokkah Boeng disease, the setts was treated by carbendazim solution at 0.1% (at 1 g/l) for 15 min. To control termites, early shoot borers, and scale insects, the setts was treated by a systematic insecticide *viz.* malathion 50EC (at 2 ml/l) or dimethoate 30EC (at 3 ml/l) for 15 min.
